Stocks Fall Thanks to Spain and Sluggish Economic Data

Worries about the economy in the U.S. and Spain led to the stock market seeing red Monday. Nevertheless, the average for the month was up for the seventh consecutive month. The Dow Jones Industrials were down 14.68 points to 13,213 and ended 1.59 above the start of April. Its string of gains is now the longest in more than five years.

The Nasdaq was down 22.84 points to end at 3,046, while the S&P 500 was off by 5.45 points to 1397. On Monday, the news out of Spain was dismal. The economy there shrank for the second straight quarter and some fear the country will fall into another recession. Markets in Europe were lower on Monday.

In the U.S., personal spending was down in March and was just shy of economists’ forecast of 0.4%. Personal income for the month was up 0.4% topping economists’ estimates of 0.2%.

Markets in Asia were higher following a strong finish in U.S. markets from the previous week. Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 1.7% and the ASX 200 in Australia gained nearly 1%. Markets in Shanghai and Japan were closed due to the holidays.

In the U.S., shares of book retailer Barnes & Noble skyrocketed by 52% after it announced that Microsoft was investing $300 million in its college texts and Nook digital book business.

Apple was down 3.2% following a New York Times front-page report that said the company used a number of methods to legally reducing its tax burden.